Cortana on the 950 - How robust is it?

Can I start playing music on pandora (for example)? "Hey cortana, play the beatles on pandora" ?

It seems like it'd be a nice feature, but not really sure how to best utilize it.

I don't have a 950 yet, but my Wife has one. So far she's tried a few Hey Cortana commands, but nothing seems to react, it just ends up searching the internet for whatever she said. She gets frustrated with it to the point where she finds zero value in the addition of Cortana.

I'm trying to get some examples of useful Hey Cortana commands for the 950 to understand how robust the 'assistant' really is.

To get the most out of Cortana, you're going to have to actively learn how to use her and configure her. Open up the Cortana app and touch the hamburger menu icon in the upper left corner. Then click on 'Notebook' and that's where you should start. It lists everything you can do with her, and this is also where you feed her information and sources to utilize when you ask her to do things.

So far all I've done with her is use her to send texts and make calls for me when I'm in the truck, and also driving directions. Basic, but it worked fantastic. She seems to understand my speech a lot better than Siri did and the directions she gave me were extremely robust and accurate. Many times better than my Garmin stand-alone GPS unit.

To get the most out of Cortana, you're going to have to actively learn how to use her and configure her. Open up the Cortana app and touch the hamburger menu icon in the upper left corner. Then click on 'Notebook' and that's where you should start. It lists everything you can do with her, and this is also where you feed her information and sources to utilize when you ask her to do things.

So far all I've done with her is use her to send texts and make calls for me when I'm in the truck, and also driving directions. Basic, but it worked fantastic. She seems to understand my speech a lot better than Siri did and the directions she gave me were extremely robust and accurate. Many times better than my Garmin stand-alone GPS unit.

What's the trick to get turn by turn voice directions? We tried this too, but couldn't get it to give voice directions.

Cortana does not give turn by turn voice directions that's the job of the map app.
You say "Navigate to..." Select your option if there is more than one. Maps should open up and you can start turn by turn.

You can try to say "Open Pandora" and see if that works. I know it works for native apps.

Yes you can say "Play Music by....artist". No idea about the Pandora part though...I dont use it.

By far I use her most for texting, especially while in the car. I can just say "hey cortana, text my wife I'm running late" and she sends it. I use her for music a lot too (groove, I don't know if Pandora is compatible yet). You can tell her what to play (artist, album, playlist) and then navigate around (skip, pause, play etc).